Cyrille Le Paradox
Cyrille Le Paradox, also known simply as Le Paradox, is the enigmatic main antagonist of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Background Cyrille Le Paradox comes from a long line of master thieves, the Le Paradox Clan, similar to Sly Cooper. Years prior to Thieves in Time, Sly's Father's theft of the world's biggest diamond had made him a legendary thief. It turns out that Cyrille's father had planned to steal it first, and frame Sly's Father. But Sly's Father was quick enough to get it first, and Le Paradox's father got himself caught instead. Without a mentor in the family business, Cyrille eventually got himself arrested after a string of failed jobs. It was in prison that he got his criminal education bribing fellow inmates to do his dirty work where he could not, and after his release, he used his prison contacts to form his own syndicate. After this, he started masterminding heists worldwide, and maintained the appearance of a law-biding citizen, becoming a treasure collector, while actually working in the illegal, black-market trafficking of priceless stolen treasures. Synopsis Prologue Cyrille's shadow is seen in the museum, and it is suggested that he is the owner. Sly Cooper passes him outside a window, while he is talking to Ms. Decibel and Sheriff Toothpick. Turning Japanese Cyrille's first stop is Feudal Japan, the era of Rioichi Cooper. It is unknown who exactly framed Rioichi by poisoning the local Shogun's sushi, though Le Paradox and/or El Jefe were involved. However, Rioichi's cane was hidden under a rug in his Sushi Shop, leaving Le Paradox without his prize. With this, he stayed in Feudal Japan giving El Jefe technological devices to find it and allow El Jefe to attempt a take over Feudal Japan. He docked his zeppelin in the local palace, which also acted as El Jefe's base. Later, when Rioichi is freed by Sly and his gang, Cyrille's rat enforcers steal Rioichi's cane after Sly defeats El Jefe in a duel. With his prize in hand and realizing he is being tailed by another set of time travelers, he sets out for his next target. Go West, Young Raccoon Cyirlle's only true physical involvement in the Old West, the native time period of Tennessee "Kid" Cooper is dropping off Toothpick to steal Tennessee's cane. However, in this episode, Carmelita explains Le Paradox to the Gang. Clan of the Cave Raccoon Again, Le Paradox is not physically involved in this episode, only involved via a phone conversation with Grizz, and being said to have yanked the tusks off of one of the local flashlight guards (Mammoths) during his previous visit. Of Mice and Mechs Once again, Le Paradox himself is not physically involved, only mentioned by Penelope. 40 Thieves In Ancient Arabia, Cyrille is first seen having a meeting with Ms. Decibel (who is attracted to Le Paradox), right after Sly purchases Salim's old Thief outfit. After he (Le Paradox) and Decibel finish their meeting, discussing what supplies were needed to keep the last of the 40 Thieves at work making forged documents, which would proclaim a royal ancestry for Le Paradox. They then enter a tent, having further discussion. Then Sly enter, with his Thief outfit on, claiming to be the delivery boy, and Cyrille believes he is legitimate. At the end of the episode, after Sly and the Gang infiltrate the lamp shop, they discover that the shop is an underground docking station for Le Paradox's airship. Upon this, he finally reveals himself to the Cooper Gang. He then threatens that if Sly and the Gang try to stop him, he will throw Carmelita off the ship. He makes various snide remarks during the fight between Sly and Ms. Decibel. After the fight ends, Decibel frighteningly requests Cyrille to let her in. After he rejects, she get angry, explaining their deal, while he mockingly lip-sinks her. She then shouts out "Romantic nights on the Riviera!", which frightened him, as it shook up his ship. He then reveals that he does not share the same romantic feelings that Decibel has for him, saying he's not into big noses and that her music stinks even worse than he does. After Decibel falls off the rope onto a platform below, he says "Oh well, c'est la vie." He then takes his ship into the skies above, and then time-jumps back to present-day Paris. Epilogue Once Sly and the Gang return to the present, they find that Le Paradox was now in control, having proclaimed his fake royal ancestry. Sly and the Gang then dig up his history. Sly then infiltrates Le Paradox's blimp, attempting to save Carmelita, only for Le Paradox to capture him. Up at the bridge, Le Paradox explains his motives to Sly and Carmelita, and explains how he's going to get rid of them. Just as he's about to stick Sly and Carmelita through the "time tunnel" on his ship, Tennessee (who had been brought to the present by Bentley and Murray along with the other ancestors to retrieve their canes and stop Le Paradox) shoots the glass container Sly and Carmelita are trapped in just seconds before they're tossed into the time tunnel, as Le Paradox angrily shouts "Cooper you filthy vermin!". Sly then engages him in a duel, which he loses. Le Paradox slips, and begs Sly to help him up, to which Sly complies. After Sly helps him, he surprises Sly, grabbing his backpack in the process. Sly then proclaims that Le Paradox won't get away with it, and that he (Sly) will find him (Le Paradox). Le Paradox then says that he doesn't think they'll meet again, and makes his escape using Sly's paraglider. During his escape however, he smacked into the wing of a passing airplane, losing the paraglider, slipping off of the plane wing, and finally, falling into the waters below. He survived, however, by floating on a piece of his wrecked airship, having been brought to land and arrested by authorities. He was later placed in an odor-proof cell, with the guards wearing anti-odor suits and gas masks. Personality On the outside and to the world, Cyrille is a gentleman and upstanding figure to his peers. However, behind close doors and underneath it all, Cyrille is a master manipulator who can talk and/or bribe many other criminals and mercenaries into doing the jobs he cannot only to betray them when things go bad or when they simply wear out their usefulness to him. He is also known to outright disrespect his henchmen, shown when he called Ms. Decibel the "fat lady that sings." Cyrille also blamed the Cooper Clan for his family's constant failures (never mind the fact you could smell them from a mile away) and sought to exterminate them and humiliate them from history after his father's life sentence. Despite all his weaknesses, Cyrille had developed a terrible overconfidence. Before his defeat, Sly reminded him that he never really stole a single Cane from the ancestors and that with a time machine, he could have gone legit in the present time and secretly stole everything from the past. This way, no one would know what he was doing and he would've been the greatest thief in history but by attacking the Cooper Clan, he blew his cover which eventually led to his downfall. Powers and abilities Cyrille has been shown to be an adept manipulator, having been able to persuade El Jefe, Toothpick, Grizz, Penelope, and Ms. Decibel to join him, only to betray them all in the end. He has also been shown to be at least proficiently agile, being able to leap from the mechanical arms of his zeppelin's mobile control station with ease, and being able to perform a rail-slide similar to Sly. Additionally, he appears to be a swordsman, although he cant beat Sly. As a skunk, he secretes a natural odor from his tail. The smell was so bad that all his henchmen wore gas-masks to protect themselves from his stench. Also, the odor gave away his position at all times as the green gas not only littered his museum, but the Cooper Gang could smell him from outside his blimp. Power grid Appearance Le Paradox's physical appearance is a stark contrast from other mammals in the Sly Cooper series (i.e. Sly and Carmelita), he has a large head, his nose and mouth stick out from his face on a muzzle, plus his legs are relatively short, with his torso being relatively long. In his youth, his hair and mustache were black, with his hair having one white streak in it, but in his current day and age, his hair and mustache are full-on white (although in the credits, he is shown with the same hair-coloring from his younger-self). He also has a tiny goatee on his muzzle, and has small ears, which are somewhat obscured by his hair. Finally, as a skunk, he has a large tail, pointed on the end, with a white, split-in-two stripe running down the length of it. Trivia * The name "Le Paradox" is a play on the term "temporal paradox", a theoretical paradoxical situation that happens because of time travel. * In promotional material, Le Paradox is only referred to as "The Collector". Gallery Category:Male Category:Villain Category:Games Category:PlayStation Category:Sly Cooper Category:Attractive Male Category:Characters